


Jacob Stone and the masks of the world

by debbystitches



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:07:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28636746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debbystitches/pseuds/debbystitches
Relationships: Jacob Stone/original female character
Kudos: 3





	Jacob Stone and the masks of the world

Jacob came home when his sister called. He didn’t have time to do anything but go. He arrived and was granted access to his father’s room at the hospital. He hugged his father, told him things he knew he needed to say and watched his father fade away. It was harder the next few days as condolences came in. He used his personas on social media to warn people to be more proactive. He made efforts to boost mask wearing everywhere. Finally, he sent a message to his best friend’s wife back home. 

Hey Babe

The Western Union is not coming up

What’s going on

Was the reference number changed?

But the message didn’t go to Babe, it went to Sunny, a girl he used to know in Oklahoma. When she replied that she didn’t have any idea what he was talking about, he apologized. He had been in Oklahoma for nearly a week. He was going stir crazy at his sister’s place. He had to be quiet while her kids were doing schoolwork and keep them quiet while she did her work in the evenings. Friday afternoon he took his phone and disappeared in the garage. He tried calling Sunny on the messenger application, but she didn’t pick up. He surfed the web for a while, sent messages to his co-workers and was heading back into the house when a message pinged. 

Sunny: Did you need something JS?

Jacob: I need to get out of here. Is your dad’s place still open? 

Sunny: No, but his buddies have been hanging out in my rec room each night. 

Jacob: Are you still in the same place?

She wasn’t but she sent him the address of her new house and instructions on how to get straight into the rec room. When Jake arrived, he shook hands with the old men from his father’s group of friends before they shambled out for horse shoes and errands for their wives. In the room were Sunny’s sons who all looked so much like their mom, Jake knew who they were instantly. He also spied 3 guys from his wrestling days. He joined their conversation at the bar in the back of the room. “Hello Coach Karstetter” he said as he stuck out his hand at the older man behind the bar. The younger version of the two took Jake’s hand. “They call me Coach now, Jake.” Said Alan Karstetter Jr. Jake smiled and shook the man’s hand vigorously. The elder coach said, “and this is Earl Shockley. The two of them teach at the high school.” Jake took his hand too. Then they passed around the hand sanitizer and laughed. 

After 30 years they were all talking like they had never been apart. Comparing scars and coaches. Jake asked in a lull in the conversation. “Where’s Sunny?” The youngest coach called to the young guys playing cards in the corner, “Where’s your ma?” Three identical hands pointed toward the ceiling above. “She’s in her work room then. Make some noise at the top of the stairs so she know’s your there or be prepared to dodge a rotary cutter or fabric shears.” Jake followed the man’s gesture to a staircase tucked against the far wall. He moved on cat’s paws going up the stairs. Sunny was sitting with her back to the stairs. She was hunched over a sewing machine looking out over the men playing horse shoes. She was humming along with Christian Kane on her speakers. Jake cleared his throat. 

“Hello Jakers,” she said without turning. “Let me finish the bear’s belly.” She put in a few more stitches on the machine and back stitched before turning away and rising from the chair. He looked at the gal he hadn’t seen since he solved a mystery nearby in the mid 2000’s. She hadn’t changed at bit. Long legs ended at barefeet on one end and shorts on the other. Her tank top exposed a lot of cleavage. The clothes hung close to her thick hips and waist. Jake licked his lips. “Sunny girl, you look…” “Oh skip the lies, I look like I carried a set of triplets 22 years ago and the weight never went away.” Jake shook his head. You look like you did in high school under all those baggy sweat shirts and long tailed tops.” “Ah well, you are full of crap. I’m bigger than I was in high school but not by much except, for my chest.” Jake looked at her chest again the looked away. His face got hot. 

“Hey now, sit down here and talk to me. I’m sorry about your dad. Did you get everything squared away?” Jake sat in a large leather club chair with a matching ottoman between him and Sunny. “Yeah everything was fine. Thank you for the food by the way.” “I was glad to do it and Melissa was happy to help.” “What are you working on? Bears?” “Yea, I’m working on bears to take a break from masks.” Jake looked over the room. Nearly in the middle of the room was a marble topped work table with faux fur stacked up on one side and totes of fabric everywhere. A television was past the worktable then a drafting table with wood veneers stacked to the side of it. Signs of her work were everywhere. The beauty of art in wood, fabric and dye were everywhere. Jake ran his hand over the soft knitting project laying over the arm of the chair he was in. His mind drifted back to seeing her with tiny needles and thin wool on the sidelines of wrestling matches and tournaments. Some people don’t change. 

They talked about old times for a while then Jake asked about her work. “I just finished a matching set of quilts for a customer completing a house this summer. I have to ship them to the designer so they can color match the paint other things. She pulled a tote from under the table and he saw the blues and yellows of a Texas day in the sunflowers. She pointed to the design wall behind him. There were the blues, greens, purples and pinks of a California sunset. “Where did you see this? In a picture?” “No I lived out there for about 6 years while writing for a publisher.” Jake looked at her. She had been that close. “You were out there with your boys alone?” “Well, I had help, my cousin and her boys were out there with me. We worked for the same publisher.” “Your cousin?” “Yeah, Babe Spencer is my cousin.” Then he saw the family resemblance. The same hair, the same green eyes and the same luscious curves. 

“It’s a good thing you came today, tonight is stuffing night.” Jake’s attention came back to her. His eyebrows danced into a question mark over his glittering eyes. “yeah stuffing night. The old men take the bears I have spent all week sewing, they stuff them and pass them over to the ones that have strong hands to put in the joints then younger eyes sew up the backs. It started when their wives would send them over here with fabric and picked up masks to take to their buddies in other places. She tucked the final bear into a tote behind her. Jake smiled at her. “I would love to see this.” “You’re welcome to join us. I warn you it’s a messy affair.” Jake could not imagine. He could not wait to see it though. An older woman in house shoes and sack dress and sweater came in the room with two pizza boxes and a bottle of root bear. Sunny thanked her. “Join me for some pizza Jake?” He said no but the smell changed his mind. She led him to a nearly empty table. It had a laptop and a stack of papers she slid over onto a filing cabinet. He lowered himself into a dining chair upholstered in fabric the same color as Sunny’s eyes. She pulled out paper plates, napkins, powdered parmesan, and pepper flakes from a cabinet near the table. Then she sat a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and two glasses between them. From under the table she pulled a 6-pack of beer chilled in bottles. Jake was impressed. “It’s pizza, gotta have beer with pizza. But first, a toast to your dad.” They lifted glasses of sour mash and said words of love and loss.

“How did you get through losing your dad?” Jake asked in the middle of his 4th slice of barbeque pizza. “I haven’t. It’s been nearly 11 years and everyday I think of what could have been. Ten years more of lost opportunities. When I watch the horse races, I think of him. Eating chocolate chip cookies with nuts make me think of him. When I pick up my leather belt or see an old man wearing muck boots. He’s everywhere. I’m the same way about my grandfather, though. And our mothers. Jake you don’t know how much of the fabric I used this past summer was from my mother’s stash. Your sister called once a month to make sure I had what I needed.” Her voice dropped off then.

She stared up at the quilt in progress on the wall behind him. “I can’t finish that quilt because I was working on it when I heard he was dead. He had been in OKC for 6 years and I never knew. Last I heard he was in Carlsbad, that’s why I was there. I had to move home then. I had to be there where he lived, handling the horses he worked with. I had to hear the stories. Babe was the same way. She was ready to be back home.” Jake took her hand on the table. 


End file.
